The Concept of Forever
by tehsecretardor
Summary: Elie Valentine has long since accepted that she will probably never have a chance to be with her best friend, Haru Glory, romantically. So when Lucia Raregroove, heir to the powerful Raregroove family business, turns his eye on her, Elie is thrilled. However, she may be the only one. AU, Haru/Elie/Lucia, others.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

The Concept of Forever

Summary: And as she sat there watching the waves, Elie decided that the only 'forever' this cruel life could ever offer them was death. AU, Haru/Elie/Lucia.

~x~

Author's Note: Gasp! Alarm! tehsecretardor has returned! I won't bog down the start of the story here, but there will be more info at the bottom and whatnot! Enjoy, my lovelies!  
[I do not own Rave Master or any characters, just the plot and such of this story maybe.]

~x~

**Chapter One: The Beginning**

With an audible groan, Elie Valentine pushed her torso up off the bed and hit down the button on her alarm clock to silence it. Though the ringing had ended, it echoed through her skull like a bad memory, reverberating around her head in beat to the throbbing headache she had. "That was such a bad idea," she grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she fell back onto the bed, unwilling to get out of bed just yet.

_Oh…who's idea was it to get drunk the night before school?_ She asked herself angrily, kicking off her covers and sliding off the mattress. She couldn't remember much about last night – she didn't even know who took her home – but she knew that it had been awesome.

Elie didn't often drink, and so when she did, she often overdid it and drank herself into a debilitating hangover. Today, it seemed, was going to be one of those days. "We really should bring water with us when we do that sort of stuff," she muttered to herself on her way to the bathroom, noticing that her brother, Sieg, and his son, Niebel, were still sleeping. Of course they were. The high school term started today, but the middle school had another week. "Lucky."

When her routine was finished, she stopped by the refrigerator and chugged a bottle of water. It wasn't an instant cure for a hangover, yeah, but at least it would speed up the recovery process a bit.

"Elie?"

Startled, the brunette nearly choked on the water, tossing the empty container onto the counter and slowly easing the liquid down her throat. "Niebel, what are you doing up?" she coughed out, turning to her nephew.

The child yawned and rubbed his dark purple eyes. Elie never could figure out how she had come from the same mother and father as her older brother – he, and his son, both had cerulean blue hair, deep violet eyes, and a birthmark going down their right eye; yet all she got was brown hair and brown eyes. "I heard you moving around," he said sleepily, smiling. "I wanted to say goodbye before you left."

"That's very sweet of you," said the older one happily, crouching down in front of him. "I'll be sure to tell you all about how the first day of my last year of school goes, alright?" Niebel nodded slowly, but Elie could tell that his lack of enthusiasm was purely due to sleepiness. "Go back to bed, and tell your dad that I'm going over to Haru's house after school today."

"Daddy said that he thinks you two 'like each other'," whispered the child slyly in her ear. "Is it true?"

Elie sighed. "Sieg is worse than an old woman sometimes when it comes to gossip," was her only response before straightening up and shooing him away. He waved to her once more before disappearing into his tiny bedroom.

All the rooms in their house were tiny, though. Sieg was a teacher, however, he did not feel comfortable enough leaving his son in the care of his seventeen year old daughter, so he was very rarely in work. Most of their income, if you could even consider it that much, came from the private tutoring lessons he gave to some of the richer children on the island. The pay was terrible, just enough to pay the bills and get by.

As she was locking the door behind her, the brunette felt a slight tap on her shoulder. Startled again, she threw the key into the air before wildly turning around in shock. "Don't do that to me, Haru!" she cried after her moment of panic was over, slapping him on the arm.

Haru Glory laughed for a second before reaching down and plucking her keys from the ground, shrugging. "I wasn't expecting you to throw your keys up like that," he teased kindly, stepping away before she could hit him again. "Why were you so jumpy, anyways? Who else was it gonna be?"

"I didn't know," grumbled the brunette, pushing past him. He followed behind her, still laughing at his little prank. "I thought we were gonna meet up with the others, what happened?"

"You haven't checked the time, have you?"

Elie slowly shook her head. They didn't have any electric clocks in the house, and she hadn't bothered to check after getting out of the bathroom. "Elie, school started five minutes ago."

"What?!"

Haru laughed again, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a slow jog. "I told the other's to go on ahead and I'd come get you," he explained, smirking as she struggled to keep up. "You must be really hung-over still. Want me to carry you?"

Under normal circumstances, Elie would have rolled her eyes and told him to bugger off. However, they were late and the jogging was only worsening her headache, undoing what little relief the water had given her. "Alright, fine," she muttered, pulling him to a stop. "But you gotta let me off before school so no one see's!"

"Not like everyone's gonna miss the fact that we're both late," retorted Haru, but at her responding glare he rolled his eyes and nodded, offering his pinky finger to promise.

Out of all of her friend's, Haru Glory was by far her oldest, and her true best friend. They had been friends from the day that she and her family moved to Garage Island, when she was only four years old. There was nothing that they had been through that the other hadn't been there for.

When his father came home after being gone for six years, Haru had ran all the way to her house just to share the news with her first. Two years after that, when Elie's parents had gotten sick and died soon after, Sieg allowed her to spend the night at his house for a few days and he allowed her to sleep with his favorite teddy bear. A year later, when Haru's mother was in an accident and passed away, the two of them spent the night together in the woods and Elie listened to him tell her all about his mother. And, finally, when Haru and his father were in a car accident on the mainland three months ago and Gale died, the only person Haru would speak to apart from his sister was Elie.

Naturally, rumors floated around their friendship. It became a joke for them, making silly little sarcastic remarks every so often when it was just the two of them. Usually something along the lines of "Oh, but, Haru, don't you know? You're my one true love!" or "I've never dated a girl because the only girl I could ever be with is you, Elie!"

Even their circle of friends, which included three other people, were convinced that they were secretly in love. Julia, the only other girl and somewhat of an older sister to them, often tried snide remarks to see if she could make one of them slip up and accidentally say something that would reveal their feelings for each other. However, Elie and Haru merely laughed it all off and, for the most part, ignored them.

For Elie, playing along with it had become second nature. She had known for years now that she was, in fact, desperately in love with her best friend. She couldn't name the exact moment, but she suspected that it had happened sometime around when he and Musica started to hit puberty, when he went from being a boy who was shorter than she was and with a voice almost the same pitch, to being a teenage boy a head taller and with a voice that deepened spectacularly overnight.

However, she had also long since given up on the idea that he might return the feelings. Haru's current relationship status was one of the few things that he had little to say about. "I don't want a relationship," was usually the only response he'd get, even for Elie. Though she was positive that her love was true, the brunette decided a long time ago to be happy that he was her friend and not be greedy about it.

"Alright, as promised," said Haru after a few minutes, breaking her train of thought, "Time to let ya' down and prevent anymore rumors from flying around than already exist."

He crouched down for her to slide off, stretching his arms as soon as she was off. "Thank you very much, sir," she giggled, pretending to curtsy for him. He rolled his eyes, but grinned, and took his bag from her and slung it over his shoulders. "Alright, come on, we might be able to slip in without too much attention drawn."

The two made their way through the building quietly, but there was no sign of any of the usual hall monitors roaming. "That's weird," muttered Haru as they climbed the stairs up to their classroom. Due to the small size of the Island, most of the seniors had the same core-classes, which meant they would all see each other in most of their classes every day. "Look, there's a whole bunch of people outside the class."

Just as he had said, an entire group of girls crowded around the small window to their classroom, each one struggling to get a closer look. "Oh wow, he's even dreamier in person!" one of the cooed, sighing happily. "Such beautiful hair, and those eyes!"

"Excuse me," said Elie softly, trying to make her way through. Haru followed closely behind her, his body gently pushing against her. "Sorry, pardon us," she continued to mumble, keeping her eyes down. The crowd was doing nothing for her headache, but thankfully they made it through without much of an issue. Inside the classroom, however, was no different.

Most students stood gathered around a desk in the far left corner, obscuring the object of fascination from view. "There you two are!" called Julia, sitting opposite the room from the crowd and waving them over. "Grab your seats, hurry, the teacher is busy trying to get a handle on the class."

Elie and Haru did as they were told, sliding into two empty seats behind them. Julia and her boyfriend, Let, sat in front of them all, with Musica directly behind Let and Elie to his left and Haru behind Musica. "What's going on?" asked the brunette, pulling her bag off her shoulder and quietly setting it on the desk.

"New kid. Dunno anything about him, we got here just a bit before you two," explained Musica lazily, yawning. "Even the teacher is going all gaga over him."

As if his words had summoned her, the teacher reappeared through the crowd, straightening her shirt. "Alright class, please, settle down," she called, making her way to the front of the room. When no one responded, she grabbed a yardstick that was leaning against the wall and rapped it on her desk several times. "I said, 'settle down'!"

The crowd dissolved slowly, finally revealing what had made them all so rowdy. It was a new student, like Musica had said, about the same size as Haru. However, he could not have been any more different than their friend; his hair was golden blond and roughly the same length as Elie's, hanging down in front of his similarly colored eyes. He had a slight smirk on his face that seemed almost as if it belonged there, making even his relaxed expression seem mysterious.

For reasons Elie could not quite place, she felt drawn to him. He sat with the air of someone that was accustomed to being the center of attention, and his every movement demanded to be noticed. That, she suspected, was most likely the cause of the crowd forming around him. Not only was he new – something the teenagers of Garage Island did not often experience – but he almost required to be flocked to.

More than anything, it worried Elie. For any man to be that magnetic and know it (judging by the way he surveyed the classroom as if he owned it, he knew of his effect on people) could spell destruction to the hearts of girls everywhere.

"Alright, as you can all see, Garage Island is now the home to a wonderful new family," said the teacher after everyone had been seated. "Young man, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"

"Certainly," replied the blond, sitting a little straighter in his seat. "My name is Lucia Raregroove, and my father and I have returned to his home indefinitely until it is my turn to take control of the family business."

His voice was almost melodic, soothing and charming and the sort of voice that only prince's in make-believe stories were possible of possessing. For a brief moment, Elie felt herself slip into the spell it created, but there was something about his words that drew her away. His tone was charming, but it carried an undertone with it that the brunette was sure she wanted nothing to do with.

As the teacher proceeded to ask him more about himself, Elie glanced at her friends. They were all clearly interested in Lucia, but not in the same way that the rest of the class was.

Julia was frowning, her entire body on alert. Musica was also frowning, his eyes narrowed in a sense of concentration that meant he had felt all the same things Elie had. Let, who looked serious almost 99% of the time she saw him, had hardened in what appeared to be a defensive expression. And, finally, Haru was just staring at him as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"And so, after twenty of years of loyal service and assistance to the Empire, father decided to take an early retirement and come back home," Lucia finished, his smirk widening.

At his words, Julia broke away from him and ripped a page out of her notebook, scribbling something down before passing it over to Let. He read it quickly, and responded. With a quick glance at the teacher, he handed the note to Musica, who followed suit and passed it to Elie.

The message from Julia was simple, "You guys feel something weird about this dude?" Let had replied with just a simple "correct" and Musica wrote, "There is totally something off about him," as well as a small doodle of an unhappy face.

Elie took a pen out, glanced at the teacher one more time, and quickly wrote underneath Musica's reply, "I don't like the way he sounds. It's all nice and stuff, but his expression makes it seem all dark and spooky."

The note went to Haru, who replied much slower than the rest of them, crossing out several responses before finally settling in on one and passing it up. All it said, however, was, "We'll talk about this at lunch, not enough time here."

Once the note had made its way through the five of them again, Julia slowly tore it to pieces and threw it away. Haru was not often serious, but there was something almost urgent about his response that had them all on edge.

The class proceeded as it normally would, and once the forty-five minutes were up, the students herded out of the classroom like sheep. As soon as the door behind them was closed, all the girls in the classroom went crowding around Lucia again, determined to make a good impression on the supposed billionaire son.

"Hey!" cried Elie as she got dragged into the mess. "Wait, I don't want to be here!" Her friends noticed, but it was too late; she was already sucked into the vortex-like-crowd. The brunette struggled, trying to free herself from whatever had snagged her into this hell, but rather than free herself and rejoin her friends, Elie lost her balance and came tumbling down.

Right in front of Lucia Raregroove himself.

In a flash, the entire crowd was silent. "Hello," said the blond pleasantly, leaning over her. Elie opened her eyes and smiled back up at him, hoping no one would call out the growing blush on her cheeks.

"Hi there," she replied happily. "How goes the first day of school, Lucia?"

He smiled at her and shrugged. "Delightful." That said, he straightened up and offered her a hand, much to the surprise of the crowd. "Would you like some assistance?"

Elie did not want his help, but she also didn't want to be rude to the new guy on just a strange feeling about him. Reluctantly, she reached up and grabbed his hand, hoisting herself off the ground and back onto her feet. "Thank you," she said quickly, brushing herself off. "It was a pleasure to meet you, but I really have to get on off to class now."

"Well, so do I," he said, something in his tone suggesting that he was growing tired of dealing with other people. "Where are you headed to…?"

"Oh, um," she stammered, unwilling to divulge her name. "Elie. Elie Valentine."

"Which class do you have next, Elie Valentine?"

The way he said her name made her skin crawl, and for just a second she was glad for the jacket she had pulled on in her hung-over haze this morning. "History. How about you?"

By now the crowd had realized that Lucia's full attention was going towards Elie, and they slowly dissipated. The blond started to walk, and with an apologetic look over her shoulder to her friends, Elie followed him. "History as well. Tell me, do all new students receive a welcome similar to mine?" he asked, his body mirroring her movements exactly.

"Sort of. We don't get a lot of new villagers, so, you know, the people are always really happy when one comes along."

Lucia nodded. "To be honest, I'm not much a fan of crowds," he admitted sheepishly, laughing nervously. "They make me nervous."

The brunette turned to look at him, unsure of whether she believed him or not. He seemed more genuine now than he had in the class, but there was still something untrustworthy about him. "Really? You seemed so comfortable," she commented, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I've had a lot of practice," he said, suddenly stopping. Elie stopped as well, and looked up at the classroom. "This is where you were going, isn't it?"

"I-uh, yeah," said the brunette in confusion, looking down at her purse to see if her schedule was poking out. It was not. "But how did you know that?"

Lucia smirked, and leaned in closely, his forehead hovering above hers. "My little secret," he said softly, his golden eyes shining. "I'm sure that we'll be seeing each other again, Elie."

With that, he straightened up and moved away, glancing over his shoulder at her before disappearing behind the corner. Elie continued to stare at where he was for a few seconds after he was already gone, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

He was a totally different person than he had been around those people. Maybe it was just a ruse, something he put on when he felt threatened. He was the son of one of the largest companies in the entire world – though she had never actually heard of Demon Card before then. It was certainly possible that he was much more complex than his first impression would have given off. Elie leaned against the lockers for just a second, her mind made up.

She wanted to get to know him.

~x~

Author's Note: TADA! You guys would not believe how difficult it was to get this chapter started! I must have started and scraped the first page seven times before finally getting a beginning that worked. I am SO excited for this story, it's an idea I've had for a really long time (actually based loosely off of a story I read a long time ago. I say 'loosely' because I remember NOTHING about the story except the main general plot and whatnot) and I'm so happy that I can finally make it work!  
I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll work on getting the updates up as often as I can (pfeh, no promises). :D


	2. Chapter 2: History

The Concept of Forever

~x~

Author's Note: I realized that the summary was too depressing and changed it, hope you guys don't mind!

~x~

**Chapter Two: History**

"And so, this year, I would like to focus more on…"

Elie sighed gently, leaning her cheek against her palm. They had all had this particular teacher for history all the previous years of high school, so the class was more of a continuation than anything new. On top of that, Sieg loved history, so she had been learning all sorts of history lessons her entire life, which made the required history courses of high school almost irrelevant.

In an attempt to lessen the boredom (and make it look as if she was just interested in history), the brunette flipped open the textbook sitting on the desk, allowing it to land on a random page. _Chapter Ten: The Great War._

_Huh. Don't remember Sieg saying anything about a 'great war'._

Actually interested, Elie began to read the short introductory passage.

_The Great War began in the year 0015 when the large and powerful nation of Raregroove, under the rule of King Shakuma Raregroove, began to expand their kingdom through means of conquest. It is said that they would have succeeded had the small country of Symphonia rose up to stop them. Led by King Marakia Symphonia-Glory V, the people of Symphonia and the world defended themselves against the tyranny of the Raregroove family._

"Elie, are you paying attention?"

Startled, Elie snapped up in attention, her cheeks flushing. "Oh," she stammered, "Well, I was actually just reading ahead in the book. Looking at a chapter we hadn't covered before."

The teacher's expression went from annoyed to interested in a flash. "Really?" he asked. "There's actually something that the great Sieg Hart has yet to teach his little sister?" A few giggles went up around the class, including Elie. Having the same teacher for four years did have its advantages, after all, and familiarity was certainly among them. "Okay, then, let me know what it is that has you so interested?"

"The Great War. Between Symphonia and Raregroove," she said, grinning up at him. "I mean, you know, the names all sound familiar, but I'm pretty sure we haven't learned anything too in depth about them all."

"Sieg never told you about the Great war?" the teacher repeated in shock, adjusting his standing position. "Well, alright, I guess we can skip ahead and talk about that for the first day. We all know each other, right?"

A resounding 'yes' sounded through the classroom, and the young man became animated as only a true lover of history can become at the prospect of old wars. "Well, like the passage on the chapter page says, it was a world war, but it was primarily between Symphonia and Raregroove. See, these two nations actually lived on the same continent, so when Symphonia refused to allow them to take over, they centered all of their manpower onto them.

"Unfortunately for them, the people of Symphonia were greatly outnumbered in comparison. They were a pretty small nation, didn't have enough people as it was. But, even worse than that, if you can imagine, was the use of Dark Bring, a magic stone used by the Raregrooves that gave them an edge. Each stone has a different ability, and they were almost impossible to destroy.

"But, the Symphonians also had a very powerful source of magic as well, much more powerful than any Dark Bring – Etherion. Now, we've all heard about Etherion, the magical life force that basically created the world and everything else and was able to destroy pretty much whatever it wanted. Now, like I just said, Etherion also created everything that is in the world today, meaning that even though it can destroy everything, it can make something out of literally nothing. But, you guys all know about that, so enough about that.

"The reason I brought it up is because a young girl by the name of Resha Valentine was born with the power of Etherion inside of her. A lot of people speculate that she was just an incredibly powerful mage, however, it's this next point that pretty much refutes it – Resha used her power to _create_ what they initially called Holy Bring. See, many mages and wizards have attempted to use their power to create something, and none of them have ever succeeded; except for Resha.

"Resha made five of these Holy Bring's before it became too much. She was only fifteen years old, so you guys can only imagine what that was like on her. Eventually, it became too much for her and she slipped into a coma for an entire year. During that year, the people of Symphonia changed the name from Holy Bring to Rave, to honor her for her services to the kingdom. Not much is known of her life after that, but it is assumed that she went on to have a peaceful life away from Symphonia.

"After the creation of Rave, the war took on a new turn. The Dark Bring were more plentiful, but Rave was stronger; Rave could destroy any Dark Bring, while it is not known if the opposite is true. Another difference between the two was that anyone could theoretically use a Dark Bring, while Rave was only useable by one man. Now, I say theoretically because some people were better than others at it, and some required more skill or experience. But, yeah, Rave was designed to be a one-person sort of gig, to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands."

Before he could continue, the bell sounded and the students all broke out of their respective trances. The teacher sighed and went back to sit down at his desk, waving as the students walked out. "We'll actually start the lessons tomorrow, guys," he called cheerfully. "Have a good day!"

Elie swept all of her materials into her bag again and went to the front, still deeply interested. "What happened with the war? I mean, did Symphonia win?" she asked, deeply interested. There was something very familiar about a lot of those names that he had said, especially Resha Valentine – after all, they shared a last name.

"That's up for debate," he answered with a sigh. "See, both countries were destroyed in the final battle, you know, in the Overdrive."

"The Overdrive was from the Great War?"

The teacher nodded. "Yes, it was. It didn't actually destroy one-tenth of the world, as romantic as that sounds to some historians, but it did basically wipe out that entire continent. It still exists, but it's all a barren wasteland now. So, yeah, I guess they did win, because they stopped Raregroove from taking over the world, but the cost was so great, can you really call it a victory?"

It was a rhetoric question, and Elie chose to answer only by nodding. "It's weird that your brother never told you about that, though. He's told you about pretty much everything else I was supposed to teach you," he teased, grinning.

"He might have mentioned it a few times," Elie admitted. "And I just didn't really pay attention."

The two exchanged a laugh for a second before the brunette waved and headed off to her next class, her thoughts still thinking of the Great war and, specifically, Resha Valentine.

By lunch time, she was so lost in thought about what she had learned in second period that she nearly forgot about Lucia and everything that had happened in the period before. So, when she finally made it to the cafeteria, her friends were all anxiously waiting for her with a lot of questions.

"What happened after first period?" asked Julia as soon as she sat down, looking concerned. Elie blinked up at her, trying to remember what exactly had happened that would make her so confused. "With the new kid, that blond guy!"

"Oh!"

"Did you forget about that?" laughed Musica, shaking his head. "Jesus, it's amazing how air-headed you can be sometimes, kid."

Elie laughed, shrugging. "I don't know, he just asked to walk me to class and we talked a bit. He seemed, I dunno, he seemed kind of nice. Like, you know how sometimes people act really different around their family than they do around their friends? Sort of like that," she explained, looking between her friends. "I know he sounded kind of creepy in the note, but, I dunno anymore. He was really nice."

"Were you even paying attention to what he was saying in class?" asked Let sharply, his frown deepening at her words. "His father is the owner and co-founder of Demon Card, one of the most influential and evil organizations in the world."

"What do they do that makes them so evil?"

For what had to be the billionth time, her friends gave her a look of pure shock at her ignorance of the outside world. Elie fidgeted in her chair for a second, sighing. "Sieg doesn't like having television," she mumbled out, shrugging.

"Don't worry, Elie," said Haru cheerfully, appearing behind them. "It really isn't important what Demon Card does, all you really need to know is that it's filled with a lot of really bad people and they do a bunch of evil stuff to good people."

The blond sat down next to her and gave her a pleasant grin. He was the only one of their friends to know of her financial situation, so he was usually the one that swooped in when the conversation looked as if it was about to turn towards her home life. Not that Elie didn't trust her other friends with her personal problems or anything; she just didn't want them to know that the real reason she was so ignorant of life outside the island was because of money problems.

"Anyways, his dad, King, was actually my dad's best friend for a really long time," Haru continued, frowning. "They started Demon Card together, but my dad didn't like the way King was trying to take it, so he left and came back here and got married and had Cattleya and me."

"Wait a second, King Raregroove was your dad's best friend?!" repeated Musica in shock, sputtering on his food for a second before regaining his composure. "Are you _sure_?"

"Wait," Elie interrupted, her eyes wide, "His last name is Raregroove? Like, from the Great War?"

Haru nodded. "Yeah, he's one of the only surviving family members of the royal family or something," he said. "Dad said that he wants to create the nation of Raregroove again one day, that's why he started Demon Card, so that he'd eventually have enough people to populate the country once he had enough land."

"They were the bad guys, though!"

"That's why I felt so tense around him," said Julia, shaking her head in disgust. "He probably grew up around Dark Bring, and has used them all his life. They aren't natural," she explained to Elie's questioning expression. "Dark Bring, they do weird stuff to your mind. It, like, corrupts you and makes you do stuff you normally wouldn't do."

Elie nodded slowly, not sure if she completely agreed with them. If what they said was true, however, then she would definitely stay away from him. But, it was a little judgmental to just assume that because his dad wasn't necessarily the nicest man, he was the same way. "I don't know, I think it's a little unfair to just assume that Lucia is a bad guy. I mean, it'd be like saying that the Emperor is a good guy because his father united the world fifty years ago. He could be a total jerk for all we know."

Her friends thought about it for a second and then conceded that she did have a point. "I know it's not a good thing to just automatically not trust someone based off their family," agreed Haru, "but I just have a really bad feeling about him. Like I need to be constantly watching by back around him."

"Well, yeah, a little bit," agreed Elie, remembering the way he seemed to lure the class in when he spoke. "He does seem sort of spooky."

The five of them sat in silence for a few seconds collecting their thoughts. "He certainly does seem to enjoy the attention," commented Let after a second, nodding past them. They turned to look, watching as Lucia strode into the cafeteria, surrounded by various other students. None of the near sheepish side that he had shown to Elie when they were alone was visible now. It was like he could flip a switch and go from arrogant and suave to shy and gentle in just a second.

His eyes met with Elie's for a second and he smiled, but it was more of a smirk than an actual smile. Despite her best efforts to remain open minded about him, the brunette saw something in the smirk that sent a shiver down her spine.

He took a seat across the cafeteria from where they were sitting, clearly in command of the small horde of people around him. As Elie was about to look away, she saw him turn to a man sitting beside him and nod towards her, but she was entirely too far away to make out what had been said.

"What a tool," Musica declared, rolling his eyes. "I don't even care that his dad's the leader of Demon Card at this point. Kid seems like a royal ass."

Julia nodded, leaning back in her chair. "Can we all agree that Lucia, regardless of the rumors surrounding his family, seems and acts like a tool and just move on? I'm sick of discussing him." A unanimous agreement went around the table and she nodded again. "Good. What's the plan for tonight? We going to Reina's party or not?"

"Hell yeah we are," replied Musica quickly. "I'm _so_ close to convincing her to go on a date with me, I can feel it. Just a few more parties like these and she'll be dying to go out with me."

Julia snorted; Elie giggled; andHaru rolled his eyes. "Dude, you've been saying that since sophomore year. If she wanted to date you, she'd have said yes by now," he said, leaning back to avoid his smack. "Besides, what happened to Melodia? I thought the two of you were talking about getting back together a few weeks ago."

"We were. But a little birdy told her I had a thing for Reina and she freaked out and won't talk to me," the older man said, sighing. "I mean, it's not like me an' Reina are actively talking or anything, we just flirt around when we're near each other. But Mel said she didn't want to get involved in anything like that, and we could talk about getting back together as soon as I got my priorities straightened out."

"Well that doesn't seem very fair," Elie said, frowning. "Especially after all the stuff you did for her to prove that you were serious."

Musica shrugged. He flirted around a lot, but he was a very faithful boyfriend when he was serious about a girl. Melodia was his first girlfriend, and they dated all through middle school, but they broke up when she started getting too jealous of his flirtatious personality about three years ago. Though he flirted around, and occasionally slept around, with a lot of women since, he hadn't been serious with anyone since the breakup.

"Ah well," he said lightly, "Can't change how she feels. Besides, I really think that I have a shot with Reina."

"Girl that gorgeous? She could have anyone, dude," Julia pointed out. "Not saying she's out of your league, but you have to admit, she's got plenty of options to choose from.

"Yeah, yeah, I know that," he grumbled. "But, enough about me. Haru, you got any lady that's caught your strangely colored eyes?"

Despite herself, Elie perked up ever so slightly at the change of conversation. Haru, however, seemed to have sunk away. Before he could respond, Julia jumped in. "If you need some help finding anyone, I can think of a very cute brunette that I'm sure would love for you to ask her out," she said, eyes gleaming.

Just as the two of them were about to argue, the bell sounded for lunch period to be over, and the conversation ended. "Saved by the bell this time," called Julia over the noise of the crowd. "See ya' later!" she called as they separated, herself, Let and Musica heading towards their class, and Haru and Elie heading towards theirs. The two of them waved goodbye once before the crowd swept them away.

"How's the hangover?" he teased as they walked, nudging her gently.

"Gone," Elie replied happily, giving him a thumbs up sign. "Thankfully. I don't even want to think about how upset Sieg would be with me if I came home with a hangover again." The brunette groaned at the prospect of having to sit through another one of his endless lectures about underage drinking and the effects it has on the growing brain and how he had never drank when he was younger and how their mother would be so distraught to learn that her only daughter was drinking.

Haru laughed at her shudder, shrugging. "Cattleya got mad at me the first couple times it happened, but now she just doesn't really care. She says that so long as I'm not driving or causing a commotion, she doesn't mind," he said, laughing as Elie rolled her eyes. "Hey, I can't help it that my sister is so much cooler than your brother."

"Yeah, right!"

The blond laughed again, raising his arm to deflect a blow. "Can you believe we ever thought the two of them would make a good couple?" Elie asked after a second of silence, pretending to gag. "That'd be such a horrible couple."

For some time during their childhood, not too long after Elie's parents had died, the two of them amused the thought of Cattleya and Sieg dating. In hindsight, the brunette realized that much of her fantasizing had been due to the absence of losing her mother, and the allure of being able to spend as much time as she wanted with Haru. However, around the same time they were plotting ways to bring them together, Cattleya met Shuda, a man that was near Sieg's age that had befriended Gale during one of his many visits to the mainland and decided to settle down at Garage Island due to his admiration of him. Cattleya and Shuda started dating almost immediately, and had gotten married about three years ago.

The two bantered on for the rest of the walk to class before they were forced to sit through another forty minutes of introductions and first-day formalities. Despite their earlier agreement to sit near each other, Elie and Haru had been separated by alphabetical seating, which sent Haru right up front and Elie all the way in the back.

Some ten minutes into the class, the brunette felt her pocket begin to vibrate, snapping her out of a daydream. Sieg had given her a cell phone in case of emergencies a few years ago, but she didn't use it very often. It was a prepaid phone, the type where you bought minutes as you needed them – texts cost a half minute each – and she generally didn't use them often. There were weeks where she forgot that she even had one.

Checking to ensure that the teacher wasn't paying attention to her, Elie pulled the phone out of her pocket and checked the number. It wasn't one she recognized, and she opened the text.

_"Are all schools such a bore? –Lucia"_

Elie blinked at the screen. How did he get her number? The brunette glanced up at Haru, worried that he would know somehow and be upset that she was talking to him. Whatever his reasoning, he really just did not seem to care for the newcomer. _"I dunno about other ones, but this one is pretty dull, yeah."_ She texted back, her fingers clumsy on the keyboard.

_"Wanna ditch with me?"_

Again, Elie stared down at her phone blankly. The idea of ditching class was completely foreign to her, something that she had never even imagined doing. However, before she could gather her thoughts and make a decision, the screen flashed again with another text.

_"Meet me by the cafeteria after class."  
_

~x~

Author's Note: Alright! Now, I got a bunch of questions (well, one person asked several different questions) about whether or not there is magic. I decided that it's still in the same universe as Rave, HOWEVER, with one big difference; Shiba was able to destroy the Sinclair Dark Bring fifty years ago. Instead of it being the end of Dark Bring forever, all it did was significantly weaken their power, making them not quite as threatening as they were before. As for the magic issue, that's a secret! :D  
I hope you guys all like the chapter, and I will try to have the third one up a lot sooner than this one was!


	3. Chapter 3: Secrets

The Concept of Forever

~x~

Author's Note: I always say that I'm going to update on a schedule, but that really just never happens, huh… Well, anyways, enjoy!

~x~

**Chapter Three: Secrets**

"Your friends don't seem to care for me too much," commented Lucia casually, dangling his legs off the side of the mountain. They were on the path up, not too far up that the height was disorienting, but high enough that they would not be seen from the ground – a nice hiding place given the size of the island.

Elie hadn't intended to skip classes. She had made up her mind to stay and finish the school day, and was on her way to tell him so when something changed. Elie had been living on Garage Island since she was a little girl, and she couldn't remember a thing about her life before. Sieg had told her that it was good they had come to the Island, that it gave them a security that they hadn't had previously. However, somewhere over the years, security had turned into a stale routine, and Lucia was a change from that routine. He was new and different and completely foreign to the world that she lived in.

For the first time, Elie finally understood why so many of the teenagers on the island clung to their televisions and internet and allowed themselves to live vicariously through what they saw; it was something different, something that never stayed the same for long.

So when she got down to the cafeteria, she adjusted her school books and asked him where he wanted to go.

For a newcomer, he knew his way around the island surprisingly well. "What do you mean?" Elie replied carefully, knowing exactly what he meant. Normally, her friends weren't quite so judgmental, but there really was no denying that there was something about him that left a bad feeling deep in her stomach.

Lucia laughed. "The people you were with at lunch. The girl and those three guys. They all gave me dirty looks when I walked by," he said, not beating around the bush.

"Oh, that," Elie replied, laughing as if it was nothing. She hated to lie, but she also didn't want to betray her friends' trust by saying too much. "They're just uneasy because Demon Card has such a bad reputation."

"Do you share the feeling?"

The question came out sounding light, and the blond even retained his half-grin, half-smirk. However, out of the corner of her eyes, Elie saw a glimmer of something heavier than a lead balloon in those golden eyes. "To be honest," she said slowly, keeping her tone as light as his had been, "I don't keep up with what happens outside of the island. My brother doesn't care for television, so we don't have one."

"Good to know," he said, his lips stretching outwards. Elie returned the smile, and the conversation was quickly dropped and with it, whatever it was that had swelled between them after his question.

"So, since you don't really keep up with what happens on the mainland and the rest of the world," he said after a while, watching her closely, "What do you keep up with?"

It was a good question, one that had been clawing at the frontlines of her thoughts since she had left the school building. "My friends, mostly," she answered with a shrug. "School. My brother would kill me if I did poorly, so I guess I just focus time that could be spent gawking at the mainland on ensuring my grades are good."

Well, it wasn't a lie, that was for sure. But she hated the way it sounded, the way the words came so robotically, like she had been trained to say that. The clip in her voice was not missed by Lucia.

"Have you ever left the island?" he asked softly. His eyes were watching her every move intensely, similar to how Sieg used to hover over Niebel while he was doing homework.

"I was born somewhere on the mainland," she replied with a grin. "I don't remember where, and my brother said we used to move around a lot so I guess it wouldn't really matter where anyways. And I've taken trips up to Hip Hop Town and Punk Street with my brother and nephew, and my friend Julia and I always spend a week in Experiment during the summer."

"Yes, but that's just one small continent," Lucia said with a sigh. "The smallest one there is, really. Aren't you at all curious as to what else there is?"

Elie considered. Of course she was curious. She was curious about where she had come from, about why her parents had never stayed in one place for too long. She was curious about Resha Valentine, with who she shared a last name.

But then she thought of Haru, of how he had, unknowingly, given her a reason to love the island, whether it was because of his own intense love for his home or simply because this is where he was. She thought of all the great times they had had together, just playing or hanging out on the island, and how the few times he had ever gone to the mainland had ended up chiseling away at his smile, something Elie could not forgive.

_But what sense is there in loving a boy that won't ever love you back?_

"I am curious, yeah," she finally said, shrugging. "But all my friends are here, my family. It's a little boring, sure," _very boring_, "but it's still home, you know?"

Even as she said the words, Elie knew that they were half-hearted. Yes, it was certainly true that this was where all of her friends and family were, and that alone was all the reason she needed to remain here. But there was a part of her that desired more than anything else to see the sky from a new perspective.

Lucia only shrugged. "The place seems dull. You see the same people, every day. You do the same thing, every day. There's no variety, there's no…excitement! I could never understand why my father refused to visit here until I got here. It's really no wonder why he left in the first place."

"It's a little dull, sure," Elie agreed, frowning. "But isn't it the same in a big city? You see all those people, but you don't know any of them. You do all the same things, but there was millions of other things to do. It isn't like that here."

He did not respond, and the brunette did not push it further. She remembered having similar arguments with Julia when she first moved to the island five years ago. Whether you wanted it to or not, Garage Island grew on you if you kept an open mind about it. "I should probably head home," he said suddenly, standing. "Father and I have plans."

Elie nodded, about to rise as well when she noticed that he had extended his hand for her, smiling down at her. She returned the smile and took his hand, allowing him to hoist her up. Lucia did not release her hand immediately after she was on her feet, but instead seemed to hold her against his body for a second. "We will do this again." It was not a question, it wasn't even a suggestion; it was a statement.

"I'd like that," replied the brunette, realizing that she meant it. Despite all she had said about Garage Island – most, if not all, she had truly meant – there was something undeniably magnetic about Lucia and all his newness. The island was her home, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the taste of something different, right?

He nodded at her, as if he was pleased with her response. "I was thinking," he said, turning to leave, "since it would appear that your friends are…less than thrilled about my arrival, perhaps it would be best if we kept our friendship a little…private? It'll be our little secret, Elie."

The way he said her name made Elie feel oddly torn between swooning over him like she had seen the other girls at school do, and jumping off the ledge. _Talk about mixed signals_. "Probably be for the best," she agreed, watching him leave. He flashed her one more smirk before he disappeared behind the bend of the path, leaving her alone.

Elie couldn't quite place her finger on him. There were moments, like that last one, where she felt the same sort of repulsion that made her want to be as far away from him as possible, but then there were also moments, like that last one, where she found herself drawn to him like a magnet. She had never dealt with these sort of mixed feelings about another human being before. Normally, she just liked everyone and didn't cause problems. No confusion. No weird bad feelings.

But, was a bad feeling really enough justification to terminate what could possibly be a wonderful friendship before it even had the chance to bloom? At the very least, Elie would give it a shot.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. True to his word, Lucia did not again associate with Elie while they were at school, but Julia had mentioned a few times that she swore she had caught him staring at her during class. When her friends asked where she had run off to that first day, she lied and told them that she hadn't felt well, so Sieg gave her permission to leave school early. She got home and deleted the message from the school and spent the rest of the evening complaining about a migraine to her brother to make it more believable.

She hated having to lie to them, but since it was just a one time thing, Elie considered it a necessarily evil.

Musica did manage to hook up with Reina at her party and described their night together with more detail than the pornography that she had Haru had once looked up online (not to actually get off to, just to see what the big deal was; they were unimpressed). However, she then contacted him the next day and informed him that it was nothing more than a drunken one night stand, regardless of how wonderful it had been. Elie thought that that would have made him as moody as he had been after Melodia broke up with him, but he said that he didn't really care they weren't going anywhere; he was just happy he managed to actually get in her pants.

However, other than that, nothing had really changed. Elie went to school, she did her classwork, she hung out with her friends, she did her homework, and she occasionally played with her nephew and listened to Sieg drag on about something or other. But, at the same time, everything was different. It was like the world had somehow changed just enough to be noticed, but not enough to cause disarray.

Every night, she spent hours texting Lucia. When she ran out of minutes the first time, she simply asked Sieg if he could drop a few dollars for some more, saying that she hadn't realized they had run so low. He believed her, and she received more. After she had used them all up the very next night, Lucia surprised her with a brand new cell phone, with only one number programmed in.

"You don't want your brother to find out that you've been using the phone for casual texts, so I figured maybe it'd be better if you just had my old one. The number is unique, and you only have to use it to text me. That way you won't run up all that money," he had explained, his eyes liquid gold.

She kept that cell phone at home, hidden in a locked drawer she once used to store her diary in. It was a bit strange, but it felt good to be breaking the routine.

* * *

"You guys hear the news?" Julia asked on the way home from school one gloomy Monday afternoon. The school year had been in session for about a month now, and Garage Island had finally settled down from the Raregroove's moving in. The overcast, however, had the entire town uneasy; since they were on a small island in the middle of the ocean, overcast could really only mean one of two things: they were about to get hit with a horrible thunderstorm, or somewhere around them was about to get hit. Both were equally bad, since many of the natives were fishermen, and would not be able to arrive back on the island before the rain hit.

"No, what now?" grumbled Musica. He hadn't had the best day at school; he had been given detention for sleeping in class too often.

"I guess another new family moved to the island recently. Two girls our age and an older one about Sieg's age," she said, nodding at Elie. "I saw a glimpse of them on my way to school. One of them is about Elie's size with long, light blue hair, and the other is taller with darker blue."

"They've got blue hair?" repeated Haru in surprise. Not that he was necessarily one to talk about strange hair colors, seeing as his was naturally the color of silver. "Are they cousins of yours, Elie?"

The brunette thought about her parents, specifically trying to recall if they had had any siblings. "No, I don't have any cousins. Both of my parents were only children," she finally said, frowning. "I guess it's not too uncommon to have weirdly colored hair on the mainland, though. I mean, look at Sieg and Niebel."

The others nodded in agreement, dropping the subject of their strange hair color. "I wonder what sort of people they are," commented Let softly. "And why they came to the island."

"Not everything has to be analyzed," joked Musica, rolling his eyes. "Were they cute, Julia?"

"Look for yourself."

The five of them followed her gaze to the right, seeing for the first time the two girls with blue hair. The one with darker hair was clearly several years older than the other one, with bright violet eyes and a serious, reserved expression on her face. She was dressed in a form-fitting button down shirt and long slacks. The other one was more cheerful, her bright blue eyes taking in everything around her. She was dressed in a tight green tank top and bright orange shorts that cut off right where nothing would be seen.

Elie involuntarily looked down at her own outfit; a t-shirt that was slightly too small on her and a pair of worn jeans. Practical, given they were most likely about to be hit with a pretty bad storm later.

"Ohmigosh, is that Haru?" cried the younger one, noticing the five of them. Before he could answer, her whole face lit up and she started running towards him, completely leaving the other girl behind. A spark of jealousy ignited within Elie as she noticed that the girl had an extremely impressive chest (though she managed to take note that her own was larger), which was emphasized by her running. "Oh, it is, it is!"

As soon as she reached him, she jumped up and threw her arms around him, pressing her body so tight against his, it was a wonder if she could even breathe properly. "Ce-Celia?" stammered Haru, stepping back to prevent himself from tipping over. "What are you doing here?"

"My sisters and I moved here, silly," she said, pulling away to get a better look at him but not removing her arms from around his neck. "I was waiting for you, I wanted to see you before anyone else!"

"Uh, Haru? You wanna introduce us?" said Musica hotly, crossing his arms over his chest. Elie remained quiet, shifting her position so that she was halfway hidden behind Julia.

"Oh yeah!" cried the girl happily, still not releasing their friend. "My name is Celia, and that girl over there is my older sister, Belnika. We just moved here from down south with our eldest sister, Fumia."

Belnika slowly made her way over, waving nervously. "Hello. It is a pleasure to meet you all," she said. Her voice was incredibly soft-spoken, as if she was uncertain of every single word she had uttered. "You are all friends of Haru?"

"Yeah," replied Julia, her brown eyes narrowing. "How do you guys know him?"

"We met on the mainland, duh," chimed Celia, laying her head against Haru's chest. "We're his oldest friends!"

All eyes turned to Haru, who was glancing between his friends and the girl. "Uh, well, I don't know about that, Celia," he said softly. "We met a while ago, when my family and I went to visit my grandpa up north. They were in Ribelya for the dance festival and we just sort of…I dunno, became friends."

Celia giggled, looking around at his friends. "Oh, Haru," she suddenly pouted, lightly hitting him on the arm. "You have to introduce us to your friends, it's only polite!"

"Oh, yeah," he said weakly, clearing his throat. "That's Musica, Julia, Elie, and Let," he said, gesturing to each of them as he said their name. Elie remained quiet at her introduction, suddenly very interested in the ground in front of her feet. "What are you guys doing for the rest of the day?"

"Unpacking," Belnika said quickly, cutting off her younger sister. "Celia wanted to come and say hello to you, but we really should be getting back."

The younger girl pouted again, but finally – _finally_ – released Haru and went to join her sister, wiggling her fingers at them all. "Let's hang out sometime, okay?" she called, but Elie couldn't tell if she was talking to all of them or just to Haru. Belnika did not wave, but instead followed her younger sister silently, leaving the five of them in shock.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Julia and Musica pounced on Haru.

"What the hell was that?"

"Why didn't you ever mention them?"

"Is _that_ why you won't date anyone else?"

"Wait, are you and Celia dating?!"

"How long ago did that happen!"

"How have you guys kept in contact all this time?"

"Is this, like, a love story finally come true?"

While Haru tried to answer, or dodge, their questions, Elie turned to leave, not in any mood to listen to this any longer. As she was leaving, Let placed a hand on her shoulder, halting her. "Will you be okay, Elie?" he asked softly, his narrow eyes soft. Elie glanced back over to Haru, who hadn't looked at her once, apart from her introduction, since Celia appeared.

"Of course," she managed to get out, shrugging. "If Haru's got some girlfriend from overseas, great for him."

Let stared at her for a long minute, his eyes taking in everything that she was unwilling to admit. Finally, he nodded and removed his hand. "Let us know if there is anything we can do for you," he muttered, turning his attention back to the other three. Elie did not follow his gaze, but nodded anyways and then made her way home, alone.

For the first time in a month, the first thing she did when she got home was not go to the drawer and begin texting Lucia. Instead, she collapsed onto her bed just as the tears arrived, her body trembling with the force of her sobs.

~x~

Author's Note: Awwww, poor Elie! D: Sorry this took so long, I wasn't really sure how I wanted to start this chapter. But, seriously, this chapter actually did not take long to write. I sat down at about 2am and started writing it and did it all in one sitting!  
And I even have plans for the next chapter, yeah! Things are about to get interesting, I promise!


	4. Not a chapter - not a hiatus!

The Concept of Forever

~x~

Hey guys! So, I know a lot of people are really excited for the fourth chapter and to see what happens with Elie and Lucia and Haru and Celia, and, believe me, I have been working on it! However, the reason I'm posting this little pseudo chapter is because I will be going out of town for the next ten-ish days, and I just wanted to let you know so you didn't think I had abandoned the story. I haven't! I have, like, 1/3 of the chapter written, but I am not taking my laptop and, as such, will not be writing anything while I am away.

I should be home the evening of the 28th, and I _will_ have the fourth chapter up by the end of that week, I promise!


	5. Chapter 4: Aftermath of the Storm

The Concept of Forever

~x~

Author's Note: I said I'd get this out a lot sooner than I actually did. But, really, when have I ever actually updated on anything resembling a schedule? AT LEAST YOU GUYS ARE GETTING UPDATES OKAY. (though this chapter is a little shorter than the others I'm really sorry okay it's still a good chapter I promise)

~x~

**Chapter Four: Aftermath of the Storm**

Elie shot up at the roll of thunder, her heart racing. It was dark now, but given the ferocity of the storm outside, it could still be the afternoon. She rubbed her eyes, trying to gain an idea of how long she had been crying, and consequently, how long she had been asleep. Her room flashed blue with lightning, halting her train of thought immediately.

Instinctively, the brunette pulled her blanket around her shoulders, curling up. Not too long after her family had arrived on Garage Island, she had gotten lost outside right before a particularly brutal storm struck. Despite their best efforts, everyone who had gone out to look for her – her parents, Sieg, and Haru's parents – was unsuccessful, and so she had been forced to endure one of the worst storms to ever hit the island alone and outside, which left her permanently terrified of thunderstorms.

Normally, Sieg would make her a nice mug of hot cocoa and Niebel would come in and keep her company during the storm, but the men had left for the mainland two days ago. Elie didn't really know all of the details, but for one week every two months, they traveled to the city of Mildian to visit Niebel's mother. Elie couldn't really remember much about how Niebel came to be living with them full-time; he had sort of just appeared on their doorstep when he was about three. Sieg refused to reveal the details, and Elie stopped asking.

After a few minutes of nothing but rain, a buzzing appeared in the room. At first, Elie cringed back under her blankets in preparation for the pursuing thunder. Nothing followed, however, and after a second of confusion, the brunette realized that it was just her second cell phone going off in her nightstand.

Elie pulled it open and grabbed the sleek phone, seeing just a single text on the display. "I was going to ask if perhaps you'd join me for a stroll, but something tells me the rain isn't pleasant for walks?"

The idea of Lucia walking around in the rain made Elie smile, just a little. "I hate storms, so I'd pass even if it was." she sent back, lying back down on her bed. She wasn't used to having cell phone service in the rain; her normal phone lost it as soon as the rain hit. It was nice, having someone to talk to during the storm.

As always, his reply came almost immediately. "Really? I pegged you as the type to go playing in the rain."

"No way!"

For just a second, Elie found herself wishing that it was Haru she was texting and not Lucia. When they were younger, she used to spend some of the more brutal storms at his house, playing board-games and making blanket forts together. Whenever the thunder or lightning really started to pick up, she would cuddle up to him and he'd slowly soothe her to sleep, just like her parents used to do.

The thought of cuddling up to Haru left her feeling more drained than the actual storm. How she felt about him had never been a huge issue for her; they never caused her pain or heartache, at least, not before today.

Haru had been the only guy she had ever had feelings for. There had never been anyone else, nor had there ever been any guy interested in her. The whole island simply assumed that she was going to wind up with Haru, so what was the point trying to change that? Elie never questioned it before. She held on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, he would someday reciprocate her feelings and they could live happily ever after.

But today showed her just how stupid that was. While she had been waiting for him to see her as more than his best friend, he had found some blue-haired-bimbo overseas.

Elie sighed. No, Celia wasn't a bimbo. She was bubbly and, admittedly, adorable in that same younger-sibling sense that Niebel was. She couldn't blame the younger girl for falling for Haru, after all, seeing as she had been in love with him for as long as she could remember. And if her best friend was happy with her, who was she to dislike her?

That did not, however, take away from the ache that followed the idea of having to spend time with the two of them together soon.

For the first time, the brunette wondered if maybe her decision not to speak about how she felt had been the wrong one. She had figured that keeping it a secret would be best; he would never find out if she never said anything, and it would save them all from the awkwardness that would follow if he did not return her feelings. In the end, Elie had simply decided to put their friendship first. Until today, she hadn't regretted it.

She hadn't regretted anything concerning Haru until today. _But, maybe this is what happens,_ she thought, finally picking up her phone and checking Lucia's text. _Maybe the first person you fall in love with isn't the person you end up with? After all, I'm sure Sieg loved Niebel's mama and they aren't together._

_But where does that leave me? How I've felt about him has been such a huge aspect of my life. Is it even possible for me to move on at this point?_

The question resonated throughout her mind as she laid down again, deciding to sleep rather than deal with the storm alone. She'd iron out the details in the morning.

* * *

When Elie awoke, it was early morning. Pearly light filtered through her windows, and the storm had dissolved into nothing more than a gentle tapping on her roof. Across her room, her alarm clock flickered at midnight, giving her no way of judging what time it was. Not that she had any intention of leaving her bed today. No, she had decided to take today as a girls' day. Pamper herself with what little beauty supplies she had collected over the years and force herself to forget about Haru and his tight-clothes wearing lady.

First, however, she had to convince herself to get out of bed.

Storms were one thing, but the lazy day that followed were perhaps just as bad. Everyone was inspecting their property and/or boats for damage. Those that had family caught in the storm anxiously awaited their return. By tonight, if there had been any tragedies, the town would have planned a candle-lit service in their honor. For the most part, however, Garage Island knew how to handle itself during a thunderstorm. The people, though simple, were hardy and conditioned to the severity.

Just as Elie had finally managed to leave the warmth of her blankets, she heard someone knocking loudly on the door. Immediately, she froze. Her house was away from everyone else's, hidden by trees and other forest-like scenery. Before her parents had died, they had bought it for Sieg as a starter home. Once they died, however, and he had to take care of Elie, and eventually Niebel, he wasn't able to afford anything more spectacular and so they remained. The only one of her friend's that knew where she lived was Haru, so unless someone was just going door to door, Elie suspected that her day of beauty-therapy might not go the way she planned.

"Coming," she called, shedding her wrinkled clothes from yesterday. She hadn't even bothered to change out of what she had worn to school last night, but rather than throw on a fresh pair of jeans, the brunette decided on her pajama's; long yoga pants and loose tank top.

The knocking did not stop, not until she yanked open the door. "Haru?" she asked, frowning. He was wet from the rain, but it was the sour look on his face that caught her immediate attention. "Uh, you alright?"

"How long have you been talking to Lucia?" he demanded, violet eyes flashing. The brunette blinked, one hand still on the door handle and the other hanging limply at her side. "I thought we agreed he was a tool?!"

Elie opened her mouth to reply, but Haru wasn't finished yet. "God, sometimes it drives me crazy that you know next to nothing about the outside world, Elie!" he said, throwing his hands up into the air in exasperation. "His father is the founder of the most evil company in the world! They do bad stuff to good people! They use evil magic to do even worse things! It's like you don't even care about any of that!"

"I don't!" snapped Elie, her patience dwindling. "Times like these make me glad I don't have access to the mainland, because it means that when a new person moves to town, I don't have some pre-wired bias against them!"

Haru stared at her in shock for a few seconds before closing his eyes and shaking his head. "You don't understand, Elie –"

"No, I understand perfectly," interrupted Elie. "You guys all don't like him and because we've been friends for so long, you think that I'm just naturally going to agree with you. Well, you know what Haru? My whole life doesn't revolve around you!"

At the last word, she slammed the door shut, her whole body trembling with a combination of anger at his words and sorrow at the look on his face before the door shut. They had never argued like that before, and it had certainly never ended on such a bitter note. Sure, like all childhood friends, they had their occasional spat. But it usually ended with one of them apologizing and that was it.

This time, Elie knew that it was different. Lucia had shown her nothing but kindness, and she was not going to tolerate listening to her friends speak badly about him without any sort of justification.

Finally, her body relaxed and she slumped against the door. There was more to it than that, though, she knew. All of her frustration at how oblivious he was to how she felt…all that heartache that came with imagining him and Celia together…

It had been too much, and it exploded out. Guilt washed over her, and she nearly opened the door and went running out to find him and apologize for what she had said.

_He's got no right to be such an ass to Lucia._

Sighing, she pushed herself off the door and returned to her bedroom. So many conflicted feelings to deal with. After standing awkwardly in the middle of her bedroom for a second, Elie began to undress again, this time pulling on actual clothes and heading into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.

Sitting around and brooding over the whole mess wasn't going to help anything, she knew. And since she didn't have any sort of music player or electronic to dull away her thoughts, Elie was going to do the one thing that she loved more than virtually anything; dance. She had been dancing classes when she was younger, but they couldn't afford them after Niebel moved in, so she mostly just did freestyle. However, she was by far the best dancer on the island – and her former instructor even went so far as to say that she was the best dancer that she had ever seen.

Because their house was so small, Elie rarely danced here. Instead, she normally went to a secluded part of the island where she was safe was anyone finding her. Dancing was her passion, and though her talent was no real secret – there had been talk about her becoming a star when she was younger – she still didn't feel comfortable with people watching her. It felt like an invasion of privacy, to her.

Dressed and freshened up, the brunette slipped out of her house. They didn't bother locking it up; what did they have worth stealing? Besides, Elie was too set on getting to her spot and dancing away her troubles.

She reached her usual spot in just a few minutes and, without any music, began to dance. All at once, her thoughts vanished into nothing except for the way her body was moving. It wasn't any sort of the popular dances that the girls at school did during prom, but it was enough.

When she finally finished her dance, the brunette was sweating and felt incredibly warm. The rain was cold, but light, and it seemed to seep through her clothes just as easily as the sweat had. A smile appeared on her face as she looked up at the sky and welcomed the raindrops on her hot skin.

"You should dance like that more often."

The brunette swiveled around on her heels, heart skipping a beat. This was a private place, somewhere that she found so that she could be _alone_. "What are you doing here?" she gasped, breathless.

Haru looked down at the ground, leaning against a tree at the edge of where she had been dancing. "I saw you coming up here once and I followed you," he explained with a shrug. "I don't, like, stalk you or anything!" he suddenly cried, his eyes widening. "I just sometimes see you coming up this way and, uh, earlier, I went back to your house to apologize, and you weren't there, so I thought…you know, maybe…"

His voice trailed off as he slowly receded back into himself, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Elie watched him carefully, her eyes tracing the worry lines on his face. "You shouldn't have followed me," she finally said, turning away. "This is my, my sanctuary. I come here when I need to be alone."

"I know," he said softly, sighing. "I just…I just want to apologize. For whatever I did to make you so angry with me. I don't…will you please tell me what I did?" He moved forward as he spoke, eyes locked onto her face with a gaze that she would not return. "Is it just because of what I said about Lucia? I'm not, like, trying to be a jerk about it, I just, you know, don't want to see you get hurt because of him."

Before she knew what she was doing, Elie started laughing. The irony of his words was just too funny to ignore. "You're worried that _he's_ going to hurt me?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Lucia's been nothing but a sweetheart to me."

"Well, yeah, that's sort of what tools do, Elie."

If she was the violent sort of person, Elie knew that she would have slapped him right then and there. However, because she wasn't violent, she merely stood there and glared at him. "He came to my house today," he said, finally getting annoyed. "Asked if you were single, and I told him that you were. Wanna know what he said then?

"'Oh good, the sweet and innocent ones are always the best.' I'm not shitting around here, Elie, that's exactly what he said!" he said, grabbing her arm as she tried to turn away. Elie rolled her eyes, feeling her anger bubbling up inside her.

"What does it matter to _you_?!" she cried, her voice cracking. "Someone's actually interested in me, and this is how you react? God, you're such an ass!"

"_I'm_ the ass?!"

"Yes!" shrieked Elie, ripping her arm free. "No one else has ever even shown the slightest amount of interest in me! Never! Everyone else has girls or guys falling over for them sideways, but, no! Not me! So why is such an issue that finally – _finally_ – someone actually sees me as more than 'Haru's girlfriend'?!"

The blond blinked, mouth open in response that Elie would not allow him to vocalize. "I'm glad that he's interested in me! And, you know what? If he asks me out, I'll definitely be saying yes!"

"You will?"

"I don't exactly have a reason not to."

Something changed in the air then. Before, it had a had almost seemed like Haru had deflated, popped by her words and her tears. Now, however, there was a spark set in his eyes that Elie had never seen before. "Is that all, then?" he asked softly, his voice low. "You want a reason to say no?"

Elie was about to answer when he closed the distance between them fiercely, grabbing her arms tightly and pressing himself against her body so tightly, the brunette could almost feel his rib cage digging into her own.

And he kissed her until the two fell to the ground under the sheer force.

~x~

Author's Note: That seems like a good place to leave off, yeah?! :D Again, sorry for taking so long, I worked a really long couple of weeks so I was just too tired and whatnot to write. But it's here now, so I hope you all enjoyed! I'll get the next chapter out as soon as I can!


End file.
